Benchmarking the genetic performance of a flock
The Comparison of Merino bloodlines considers 59 genetic bloodlines for:
- relative performance for fibre diameter, clean fleece weight and liveweight
- relative financial performance for a range of wether enterprises.
This report shows how to use this information to benchmark the genetic performance of a flock.
Introduction
Income from a Merino enterprise is determined by the:
- weight of wool produced per hectare
- price received for the wool clip
- number of surplus sheep sold
- price received from the sale of lambs and older stock.
The genetic makeup of a Merino flock and the breeding decisions made by commercial producers influence each of these factors.
Benchmarking the genetic performance of a flock allows the current performance of the flock to be established. This can be useful to identify whether a change in bloodline would improve flock productivity and profitability.
There are a range of industry benchmarking tools that can then be used to:
- evaluate the current genetic performance of a flock
- identify alternative bloodlines
- select appropriate rams that best match the flock’s breeding objective.
An essential first step is to establish, or revisit, a breeding objective for the flock.
Benchmarking your flock’s genetic performance
Genetic benchmarking a flock’s current performance can either reinforce the suitability of the current bloodline or identify an alternate ram source to maximise flock productivity and profitability.
The Comparison of Merino bloodlines is a genetic benchmarking tool that can be used to identify the most suitable ram source for a flock.
Genetic benchmarking is straightforward process:
- set a breeding objective
- benchmark current flock performance
- consider all traits in the breeding objective
- determine the current performance of each alternative bloodline
- assess any constraints to making a change.
Setting a breeding objective
A breeding objective sets the long term production goals for a sheep flock by:
- setting a consistent breeding direction for the flock
- providing the performance and profit targets against which a Merino breeding program can be measured.
A breeding objective must be SMARRT.
- Specific. Key traits impacting flock productivity and profitability that are both heritable and variable need to be included.
- Measurable. The required change in each trait must be able to be measured or accurately assessed against an industry standard.
- Achievable. The production goals for key traits need to be realistic.
- Relevant. The key traits and production goals must be relevant to the production environment, target markets for wool and sheep meat and impact income and costs.
- Results focused. The desired change in each key trait must be defined.
- Timely. The time frame to realise the production goals must be stated.
Breeding objectives should also:
- be based on an assessment of the future market value for wool and sheep meat
- include traits that affect both the income and costs of the sheep enterprise.
Income | vs | Costs |
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Benchmarking current flock performance
Use the relative performance for fibre diameter, clean fleece weight and liveweight to start the genetic benchmarking process by:
- establishing the performance of the current bloodline relative to the flock’s breeding objective
- identifying potential alternative bloodlines for the current objective or if a different objective is being considered.
Note: do not use your flock’s on-farm fleece weight and fibre diameter performance to locate the position of the flock on the bloodline distribution. The flock’s environment will be different to the ‘average’ comparison environment used to calculate the Comparison of Merino bloodlines which are based on wether trials conducted across New South Wales.
To benchmark your flock:
- Find your current bloodline in the summary table.
- Locate its assigned number on the graph comparing performance.
- Use the graph below to identify alternative bloodlines based on the relative value of clean fleece weight and fibre diameter (or micron premium) in the breeding objective:
- where a high value is placed on fibre diameter relative to clean fleece weight, alternative bloodlines can be identified by tracking horizontally to the left of the current bloodline (the navy blue arrows).
- where an equal value is placed on fibre diameter and clean fleece weight, alternative bloodlines can be identified by tracking diagonally upwards from the current bloodline (along the light blue arrows).
- where a high value is placed on clean fleece weight relative to fibre diameter, alternative bloodlines can be identified by tracking vertically above the current bloodline (the red arrows).
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Consider all traits in the breeding objective
Once possible alternative bloodlines have been identified, their relative financial performance and performance for all traits in the breeding objective need to be considered.
The Relative financial performance report details the profit ($/ha) for a self-replacing Merino flock based on each bloodline for 3 alternative wether enterprises (lamb finishing, young wether and mature wether).
Other traits in the breeding objective may have been evaluated in the individual wether trials whose data were included in the Comparison of Merino bloodlines.
It is important to keep in mind the relative importance of all traits in the breeding objective when considering alternative bloodlines. If you find that an alternative bloodline does not have satisfactory performance for a trait, this bloodline may need to be dropped from the list of alternatives.
Consider the relative emphasis of additional traits to strike the correct balance for the breeding objective. For example, do not drop an alternative bloodline that is a standout performer for all the high emphasis traits in your breeding objective just because the bloodline is a little below the best performers for a low emphasis trait.
Information on additional traits can be accessed from the coordinator of each wether trial or directly form the bloodline being considered.
Determine the current performance of alternative bloodlines
There is a 5-15 year lag between a bloodline’s performance reported in these comparisons and their current performance. Consequently, once alternative bloodlines have been identified, further details should be determined regarding:
- their breeding objective, selection practices and genetic progress in the past 10 years
- current performance
- predicted progress for the coming 10 years.
The time lag will also be influenced by the origin of the teams entered in the individual wether trials. If the teams have originated directly from a bloodline’s ram breeding flock, there will be less lag than a bloodline whose data were solely based on client teams.
The practicalities of making a change
The list of alternative bloodlines can be further refined by considering the practical aspects of making a change. These include the:
- availability and price of rams. Does the bloodline have enough rams for sale at the price you are prepared to pay?
- time of year rams are available relative to the flock’s need for the rams. Will the rams be available and have sufficient time to undertake the necessary pre-joining checks before being sent out to work?
- distance to travel to select rams and/or transport them to the flock. How far away is the bloodline located from your property? Will the rams require additional time pre-joining to acclimatise to the environment in which they will be working?
- availability of relevant information to help accurately select from the available rams for sale. What information does the bloodline provide to assist your purchase decisions? Do they provide Australian Sheep Breeding Values (ASBVs) in their ram catalogues?
These practicalities may influence the selection of a bloodline, particularly when several bloodlines have a similar rank based on the traits in the flock breeding objective.
Other genetic benchmarking tools
There are a range of other genetic benchmarking tools that can be used if the current bloodline is not reported in these comparisons.
These tools vary in their reliability and accuracy for genetic benchmarking as well as the number bloodlines or sires evaluated, as shown below. Some of the benchmarking tools are linked which increases their usefulness for benchmarking.
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- Data from individual wether trials are used in this Comparison of Merino bloodlines.
- Merino sire evaluation provides data to and contributes to the genetic linkage for MERINOSELECT™.
- RamSelect is a decision support tool linked to MERINOSELECT™ that assists with the process of selecting rams most appropriate to a breeding objective. It also provides a means of tracking the performance of a ram team over time and benchmarking both ram team performance and Flock Profile results to MERINOSELECT™ Australian Sheep Breeding Values (ASBVs).
Tools for benchmarking genetic performance
Flock ewe competitions evaluate maiden ewes bred and grown on different properties. However, they do not normally provide measured performance information and are based on assessment of visual performance at a single point in time.
Flock ewe competitions do not account for variation in environments and have relatively low value for genetic benchmarking.
A well-planned on-farm comparison can provide an accurate picture of bloodline and flock performance.
All animals need to be bred on farm before assessment with a minimum of 5 rams from each bloodline included in the comparison.
All rams must be mated to an equal standard and age of ewes with the ewes randomly allocated to each bloodline mating group.
100 progeny of each sex are required for evaluation.
The actual number of sheep joined will vary depending on the predicted weaning rate. As a guide 250 ewes per bloodline should be regarded as a minimum for accuracy.
The same standard of rams should be selected from each source in the comparison - use a similar standard of ram which would normally be purchased to use in your flock.
All progeny from the evaluation mating must be assessed as culling some progeny before assessment may distort the results.
Commercial producers in a similar environment can use their on-farm performance records to compare the production and economic performance of their flocks.
The comparison can extend to gross margin per hectare and cost of production which can account for differences in feed utilisation and management between properties.
If fleece weight and fibre diameter are accurately assessed, any change in fibre diameter that occurs when fleece weight is increased through better nutrition can be used to correct for differences between properties in management.
Individual wether trials are a good way to compare the performance of a flock against several others under the same production conditions.
A random sample of wethers from each flock is evaluated in a trial at a single location which runs for two to four years. During the trial period the wethers are grown and managed as one group. At each shearing fleece performance is assessed and a financial value established. At the end of the trial, total fleece value and carcase value are estimated to provide an overall return.
A single wether trial evaluates only the performance of the flocks involved at one location. It should not be used to evaluate the performance of the bloodlines used to breed the wethers in the trial.
A single wether trial is not designed to identify the best source of rams.
Wether trials can only be used to evaluate bloodline performance when the information from many trials is combined.
This allows the impact of environment to be accounted for and increases the number of wethers representing each bloodline, improving the accuracy of the bloodline comparison. It also overcomes differences in ram selection and purchase priorities, particularly with larger studs.
A combined analysis of many wether trials allows alternative ram sources to be evaluated.
Merino sire evaluation benchmarks the performance of individual rams.
Merino sire evaluation compares differences between performances of the progeny of sires for a wide range of traits, not the studs that bred the sires.
Within a site, sire evaluation allows commercial Merino producers the opportunity to assess performance of rams entered at a particular site. Combining the information across all sites (for example, the across-site analyses reported in Merino Superior Sires) provide accurate comparisons that take into account the differences between sites and years within a site.
Purchasing flock rams that have been benchmarked to Merino sire evaluation provides a real time assessment of their performance as there is no time lag between the evaluation results and current performance.
MERINOSELECT™ is the genetic evaluation system for the Merino breed. It provides Australian Sheep Breeding Values (ASBVs) and selection indexes, which allow genetic benchmarking of sheep against the rest of the Merino breed.
ASBVs are available for a comprehensive range of commercial production and quality traits including wool quantity and quality, growth, carcase merit, reproduction and disease resistance.
RamSelect
A decision support tool for Merino ram buyers that simplifies the use of ASBVs when purchasing rams. RamSelect uses information from MERINOSELECT™ to enable rams that are available for sale from single or multiple studs to be compared.
RamSelect allows commercial producers to specify their breeding objective in a direct way by indicating how much emphasis they wish to place on a range of measured and assessed traits. A range of industry standard selection indexes can be used as a starting point to develop a SMARRT breeding objective. Rams available for sale that match the breeding objective can be identified and ranked.
The Ram Team Manager function of RamSelect allows ram team data to be stored, and ram teams benchmarked against industry and their performance over time tracked.
Flock Profile
Flock Profile is a service based on DNA sampling of 20 ewes from the youngest age group and sending the blood or tissue sample for genotyping.
Flock Profile testing provides a guide of flock average breeding values for important traits in the breeding objective.
The Flock Profile result can be used to track changes in flock performance over time. For accurate flock profile results, the commercial flock must be closely related to their bloodline and the bloodline represented in MERINOSELECT™.
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